TES V: Skyrim

[Kyyla]

Yeah I love summoning my dremora lord and watching him decapitate any annoying bandits. :smile:

 

[fellix]

The new R290 driver branch from Nvidia adds SSAO support for Skyrim.

http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windo...op-win7-winvista-64bit-international-beta.exe
http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windo...op-win7-winvista-32bit-international-beta.exe
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp64-290.36-beta-driver.html
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp-290.36-beta-driver.html

p.s.:

Well, the AO profile for Skyrim is apparently the same deal as for FO3 -- overdone and darker. Just stick with the profile for Oblivion or the one for COD:MW.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

I am loving the game ! I never liked any Bethesda Fallouts, but I have fallen in love with this.

AMazing, the sense of wonder I am feeling is amazing. Every nook n cranny needs to be seen ! I am still at the beginning, never went to Riverwood, but wandered off instead, found a dragon word in Bleak Falls and was talking to Anise when she was attacked and she died and just went into her cellar to be completely surprised.
and the outdoors look beautiful to me !

 

[Grall]

When will we start seeing some DLC from Bethesda, I wonder...?

Btw, spent about an hour and a half or something fighting the same bandit outlaw in a dungeon I'd previously passed by many levels earlier. They were still the same level, so I had to leave my companion behind so he didn't slaughter everyone as I attempted to get some more experience in short blades (it's woefully behind many of my other skills). So there I was, with the bandit with his iron mace and shield...leveling blocking. It went pretty fast, I went from roughly level 11 to level 60 in that timespan, but eventually tired. I'm thinking I should re-load a previous save and continue, if I have a save that's not too far back, because enemies now hit bloody hard and I can't keep up their damage with my healing spells for very long before running out of mana... The mace guy, he was a doddle in comparison! I literally could not die to what he was doing to me, because mana came in faster than I was spending it, especially after I talented for faster mana regen.

I also gained several levels in light armor (that one levels REALLY slowly), and a bunch in restoration as well, but again, not nearly as many as in block.

What is the best way of leveling armor skill by the way? Just letting people wail on me? Seems a very inefficient way to practise (not to mention dangerous, against the wrong type of adversary), or does bigger hits give more experience in the skill? Then again, big hits will just kill my mana supply, so that's not good either...

 

[Malo]

You could spend gold on training armor skill as well.

 

[joker454]

AMazing, the sense of wonder I am feeling is amazing. Every nook n cranny needs to be seen !

That's one of the really great things about Skyrim compared to the previous Elder Scrolls games. They were all great for exploration but you can tell say in Oblivion that the nefarious Captain Cut & Paste was at work as many locations had a similar feel to them. So far that doesn't seem to be the case for Skyrim outside of towns, it seems like they really took the time to create unique places to explore everywhere! Aside from some inn's looking the same, most locations in this game have been totally unique.

 

[kyleb]

So there I was, with the bandit with his iron mace and shield...leveling blocking.

Try a mammoth. At around level 60 in block, I was gaining a level every six swings from a mammoth.

 

[Kaotik]

Sigh, the game is simply over if you ever level BS & Enchanting to 100
Everything dies to max 3-4 hits even with just 1h's

 

[Frank]

Sigh, the game is simply over if you ever level BS & Enchanting to 100
Everything dies to max 3-4 hits even with just 1h's

Well, it depends on what you want from the game, doesn't it?

 

[Grall]

How to efficiently level enchanting though? I've just dabbled a bit, fortified my hat and gloves, and a ring, put soul capture on my dagger and frost on my bow. That gave me about 25 skill or so. Then I went out and killed some people and found that grand soul gems can't hold human souls. Maybe nothing can, due to the grossness of the whole thing, I dunno.

Is grand the biggest in the game? I didn't have the dagger when I fought my third dragon (only met 3 so far) so I don't know if dragons fit in grand gems.

Oh, and the interface is pissing me off MAJORLY. Holy fucking crap it's so bad! And not in a good way either! I've died several times because of having to fiddle with switching between weapons and spells, and whenever I dual-equip a spell my shield gets unequipped so I can't block until manually equipping it again. Fucking incredible how they could launch the game with this total piece of crap interface.

I can't even drop items due to the badness and buggyness of the interface, I have to find a container to store the item in... Also, most of the time it's not possible to set a marker on the map, and if I do manage to set it, I can't set it on a destination; it just won't work. Instead I'm forced to place it a bit behind whatever place I want to go and then try to steer in that general direction. Very annoying.

 

[swaaye]

I can't even drop items due to the badness and buggyness of the interface, I have to find a container to store the item in... Also, most of the time it's not possible to set a marker on the map, and if I do manage to set it, I can't set it on a destination; it just won't work. Instead I'm forced to place it a bit behind whatever place I want to go and then try to steer in that general direction. Very annoying.

Yeah it blows but I haven't had these kinds of problems. You drop things by hitting R while in the inventory AFAIK. And I'm always accidentally making waypoints when I try to click-drag the map ala Google Maps.

 

[Malo]

Oh, and the interface is pissing me off MAJORLY. Holy fucking crap it's so bad! And not in a good way either! I've died several times because of having to fiddle with switching between weapons and spells, and whenever I dual-equip a spell my shield gets unequipped so I can't block until manually equipping it again. Fucking incredible how they could launch the game with this total piece of crap interface.

I think you need to learn the favorite and numbering system. Equip your shield and press 1, it records that as button 1. Now dual wield equip a spell and press 2. When you're in dual wield and you press 1, it should then equip the shield with your selected spell still on the other hand.

I have several sets tied to number keys and can efficiently switch between dual firebolt, bow, healing, firebolt/dagger, healing/dagger etc. For instance I can press 4 for my dagger, and it will keep whatever was in my other hand still there. I can then press 1 for my firebolt knowing that it will just change my left hand to firebolt and if I want dual casting, I just press 1 again. It was a bit strange to get used to at first but it's actually a pretty good system for quickly changing combinations for each hand.

I also have a bunch of common spells, shouts, powers and items on my favorites so if I want to change one of my hands to something else quickly, just press Q and left/right click depending on which hand I want it for.

I can't even drop items due to the badness and buggyness of the interface, I have to find a container to store the item in... Also, most of the time it's not possible to set a marker on the map, and if I do manage to set it, I can't set it on a destination; it just won't work. Instead I'm forced to place it a bit behind whatever place I want to go and then try to steer in that general direction. Very annoying.

Highlight the item, press R? I'm not sure why that is difficult.

For markers, if there's a greyed out location you know about but haven't visited it yet, if you click on it the game will advise you of this and ask if you want to place a marker instead. I don't believe they do this for visited locations because in theory you don't need a marker for a place you've already been since you can just fast travel there immediately anyway.

 

[homerdog]

Uhh, I just participated in a drinking contest in whiterun and woke up in markath. Bethesda knows me well

 

[Malo]

Uhh, I just participated in a drinking contest in whiterun and woke up in markath. Bethesda knows me well

Had fun with that one. The Hangover, Skyrim style

 

[Albuquerque]

I have to agree that the UI, while horrid, still has plenty of very functional keystroke options. My biggest problem with the UI is when trying to navigate the categories when looting / talking to a retailer / foraging in a chest and I somehow click and it exits rather than selecting my chosen category. I mostly have the problem with the "MISC" category in loot / chests, and I've discovered that it is because the word MISC isn't highlighted when I click. Thus, I've learned to move the mouse a tad more until the word highlights itself, and then click, and all is well.

Overall, the keystrokes are saving me most of the pain in the UI, and what little is left of my use of the UI just required a bit of getting used to. Similar to above, I too more than occasionally leave custom waypoint markers when trying to navigate the map. I'd prefer that the UI didn't suck, but they left enough other methods and indicators for me that it doesn't break my enjoyment of the game by much -- if at all.

Speaking of cut and paste: those little cabins that you occasionally find out in the woods are pure examples of copy pasta, and a few pieces of towns get awfully similar (waterwheels especially) but overall the world and the various crypts / ruins are VERY unique in a good way.

I just started the Bards College questline after finishing the first scripted dragon fight with the Graybeards. I want a few more shouts (or, upgrades to my existing shouts) before I go much further. I really like the storm call one; I really want the upgrade for it.

 

[Grall]

Equip your shield and press 1, it records that as button 1.

Yeah, but I don't use WASD, I play with the arrow keys. Ancient, well in-grained habit from the early 90s and I'm unable to. The number keys are too far away... That's why I'd prefer the morrowind system where you have a "ready weapon" button, and a "ready magic" button (which I bound to the mouse both of them), and where I could change weapons with the mouse wheel.

Unfortunately morrowind flipped through your entire inventory of weapons, so I fixed that by just not looting any weapons... All I carried was my main melee wep and my bow. Besides, so many weps were so expensive that no vendor could ever afford to buy them anyway so there was no point in picking them up most of the time. Skyrim brings the favorites menu, so if the mouse wheel only flipped between your favorited spells or weps, that would have been ideal. Oh well...

if I want to change one of my hands to something else quickly, just press Q and left/right click depending on which hand I want it for.

Yeah, haha... The game doesn't want to equip left-hand spells for me most of the time, the "L" symbol just flashes briefly as I select the spell and then clears again. I have to dual-equip it (several times, until it sticks), then set the right hand back to whatever I want equipped there... *sigh*

Btw, it'd been better if the shield counted as armor instead of a weapon and auto-equipped whenever I wasn't doing anything else with the left hand, having to hotkey it and do it manually just further fiddlyfies an already very fiddly and cumbersome combat system.

Highlight the item, press R? I'm not sure why that is difficult.

Yeah, except it's bugged like I said and just doesn't work. Even clicking the on-screen button/text doesn't do anything. I can't press "R" on the keyboard to craft, upgrade or enchant stuff either, but at least clicking with the mouse works there. Ridiculous.

For markers, if there's a greyed out location you know about but haven't visited it yet, if you click on it the game will advise you of this and ask if you want to place a marker instead.

Yeah, I know all this shit, and like I said, it doesn't work properly. Or, not always. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't, it's very random. Extremely annoying when it doesn't though.

I guess a number of these bugs comes from me having re-bound keyboard keys to suit my preference, so I'm gonna bite the sour apple and reset back to default and try to train myself to use WASD... It's gonna suck, I've never been able to play properly with that key setup - due to the rows of keys being staggered, most likely.

 

[Grall]

I mostly have the problem with the "MISC" category in loot / chests, and I've discovered that it is because the word MISC isn't highlighted when I click. Thus, I've learned to move the mouse a tad more until the word highlights itself, and then click, and all is well.

Hurm, I've sold my elven shield by mistake after vendoring a lot of stuff by just pressing the use key repeatedly and hitting the key one time too many (since the game auto-highlights items for you even if you don't hover them with the mouse, and even switches category automatically when you run out of items of one type to sell...) Had to buy my own shield back from the vendor for several hundred golds, thank you bethesda.

Same thing with putting a lot of ingredients into chests and stuff like that, I managed to transfer a key into my food barrel in the kitchen of my house the same way; luckily I caught it, but if I'd been out there in the wilderness, unable to open some door in a dungeon because the key was back in a random container in my house without me knowing it... Grrr!

 

[Malo]

Well sorry Grall, I didn't realize it was that bad for you. My wife and I haven't had any of these kind of problems but I'm sure you're probably not alone in these frustrations. Are you using any special keyboards/mice that require special drivers or utilities that may be messing with Skyrim?

 

[tabs]

Just in case it's not only me playing this game in stereo 3D; there's a really good mod that already fixes some of the bugs and more fixes are planned. So far the sky is fixed, which is a great improvement, especially at night. Until this mod incorporates it, there's another that moves or removes the stealth indicator, which by default is pretty annoying when playing in 3D.

 

[banksie]

How to efficiently level enchanting though? I've just dabbled a bit, fortified my hat and gloves, and a ring, put soul capture on my dagger and frost on my bow. That gave me about 25 skill or so. Then I went out and killed some people and found that grand soul gems can't hold human souls. Maybe nothing can, due to the grossness of the whole thing, I dunno.

Is grand the biggest in the game? I didn't have the dagger when I fought my third dragon (only met 3 so far) so I don't know if dragons fit in grand gems.

Human/Elvish/Khajiit/Argonian souls are different from creature souls, they require black soul gems to hold them. Alternatively if you do Asura's quest you can get the Asura Star which is a reusable soul gem that, I think, can hold any soul you trap - bar dragon souls.

Just be warned the Daedric quests tend to be tough, low level characters will get slaughtered.